Lactose Malt in Cider

[mrphillips]

If I get a cider that is too dry and "winey" tasting - something that recently happened to me - could I add a non-fermentable sugar like Lactose to it to sweeten it? I know that I could back sweeten it, but I was curious if this would also work. Are there any other non-fermentable sugars that I could use?

 

[LandoAllen]

Yes lactose would work fine. Also Splenda and other artificial sweeteners work as well. Just be careful with some bc a few are a mixture of artificial and fermentable sugar.

 

[BostonianBrewer]

Maltodextrin

 

[mrphillips]

I just did a quick search of Maltodextrin, and it said that it adds body and head retention, but has NO flavor. Is this true? Again, I would like to sweeten my brew a bit.

As far as the lactose goes, I was thinking of adding a full pound of the stuff to my 5 gallons of cider. Does anyone have any experience as to whether this is too much/not enough?

Thanks for the posts!

 

[Totes]

You are correct about maltodextrin. Lactose has about half the sweetening power of cane sugar. The less you can use to get the job done the better, as it can affect mouthfeel. A full # to 5 g is way too much, in my opinion. Start with a half #. Some love the stuff, I do not.

 

[2saints]

I have been reading extensively with the same goal. I thought maltodextrine was the answer. I bought some and tasted it and it has almost no sweetness at all. I continued my research and found xylitol. Its a non fermentable natural sugar alcohol. I bought some and it doesnt have the chemical taste of splenda so I am gonna use it on the batches I have in primary. Ill let you know how it turns out

 

[bleme]

Stevia is another option.

 

[mrphillips]

I ended up tossing a full pound of Lactose in my 5-gallon batch. It did add sweetness, but not a "sugary" sweetness. Really all it did was help to balance out the tartness.

Was it the cure-all for my batch? No. Did it improve the batch? Definitely. The added mouth feel didn't bother me at all, and the decrees in tartness AT LEAST made it drinkable. The next time I do this I'll stick with the tried-and-true 1:4 (wart:cider) ratio, instead of my 2:3 ratio that I used. I also think that I'll use a hop with lower alpha units...like cascade or Hallertau.

Thanks for all the advise!

 

[Peruvian802]

I added 1# of lactose to a batch last year for sweet bottle conditioned cider. It is a little cloying and I'd go with 1/2-3/4 # if I was to do it again.

BTW - it's not lactose malt, but lactose powder.